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Similarly, American landscape designer Meghan Talarowski compared British and US playgrounds and found the UK's riskier spaces had 55 per cent more visitors, while children who visited were 16 to 18 per cent more active.

However, both countries have seen a gradual sterilisation of play.

And this move towards a risk-free society has been reflected in our playgrounds.

Plank swings and steel merry-go-rounds are absent while play spaces are covered with an impact absorbent rubber surface.

This drives down the chance of a child being hurt while driving up the cost of new playgrounds.

But that trend has slowly begun to reverse and a push towards riskier, freer spaces is earning support from a growing list of ministers, including Amanda Spielman, chief inspector of Ofsted.

The current measures that protect our children - like forcing them to wear high-visibility jackets on school trips - are "simply barmy", she says.

"It's OK to have some risk of children falling over and bashing into things," she says.

"That's not the same as being reckless and sending a 2-year-old to walk on the edge of a 200-foot cliff unaccompanied."

In London, a plaque outside the Princess Diana Playground in Kensington Gardens which attracts more than a million visitors a year, tells parents risk have been "intentionally provided, so that your child can develop an appreciation of risk in a controlled play environment rather than taking similar risks in an uncontrolled and unregulated wider world".